ThePrime Pod

Can ESG ratings really be quantified in real estate valuations?In this episode, I sit down with three experts from Cushman & Wakefield—Richard Hogg (Head of Valuation), Stefan de Goeij (Head of Sustainability), and Michaela Killingerova (Valuation Division)—to tackle one of commercial real estate's most complex questions. We explore how valuers are grappling with ESG factors, why banks are becoming the market's measuring stick, and what upcoming EU regulations mean for existing building stock. From the challenge of collecting granular data to understanding why "prime building" now means "green building," this conversation reveals how ESG is fundamentally reshaping property values—even as the market struggles to price it in.Runtime: 31 minutes

The Central European real estate agency iO Partners has rolled out iO4Land, a digital solution that transforms how land is sourced, analyzed, and validated across Central and Eastern Europe. It's an interesting mix of existing map resources with a complex AI deployment that CEE Industrial director James Fitzgerald says takes weeks and months out of a painstaking process.

If there's anyone who knows more about Central Europe's industrial real estate sector than Karel Stransky, we haven't been introduced. I first starting interviewing Stransky 30 years ago and I've learned something every time I go back for more. In this episode, we take a deep dive into the new shocks to global supply chains resulting from the odd trade war we've found ourselves in. Can Europe snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat with its sudden burst of energy? We discuss what's realistic and what's fantasy talk in the first of a series of discussions.

Did you know that December 3 is an International Day of Persons with Disabilities? ♿ More than 1.15 million Czechs over the age of 15 have some form of disability or challenge that limits their everyday lives.I spoke about the issue with Tamas Méri, Co-founder and Business Development Director of Access4you, and Tewfik Sabongui, Managing Partner of Colliers Czech Republic. The episode shares numerous insights and best practices for integrating these aspects into business strategy and operations.

This episode features a match-up between two top-tier economists on today's biggest problem: Inflation. Michal Stupavsky (Conseq) says the Czech National Bank could have tackled the problem more aggressively by raising interest rates higher and sooner. Mark Robinson (Encor Wealth Management) says the inflation earthquake of 2022 has had major consequences. "We have to look at which assets are suffering if you have to plug in a higher cost of capital for the long-run," warns Mark Robinson (Encor Wealth Management). He's talking about he tech sector, private equity and yes -- real estate. "If you've got companies producing their profits in 10 or 20 years time, those profits have to be discounted back to now...so the valuation is lower."

What do you get when you combine falling real estate valuations with higher interest rates and lower LTV in an inflationary environment? You get a commercial property market where big transactions are scarce, and brokers don't know what price to list assets at. Savills' MD in Prague Stuart Jordan says deal flow will remain slow not because of psychology -- but because the math simply doesn't work for most investors. The deals that are happening, he says, are driven by investors who know exactly what they're looking for.

Iain Fanthorpe (Bluehouse Capital) insists that property investments aren't just designed to protect against inflation...they deliver. That was true during the last decade when inflation lay dormant. But he says it will continue to do so even in today's challenging environment. Bluehouse is a value-add real estate investor focusing on Central and Eastern Europe. ""With our assets," says Fanthorpe, "if we take a bottom up approach during our investment cycle, we feel that we can manage the process through the whole period until the environment is a little bit better."

The destructive tornado that wrecked four southern Moravian villages and hundreds of homes on June 24, 2021 unleashed a wave of solidarity from across the Czech Republic. Among those who felt a duty to contribute to the rebuilding was the Portuguese architect Marco Maio. He encouraged the villages to treat the catastrophe as an opportunity to re-imagine some of their public spaces. And as a professor of architecture at ČVUT's construction faculty in Prague, he created a real-life assignment for his students.

The fourth edition of the Czech Brownfields conference is nearly upon us. On June 16, investors, builders, banks and public officials will converge on Ostrava for two days of discussions and planning. On this edition of ThePrime Pod, Tomáš Kadeřábek (Association of Developers) says there's been plenty of theoretical talk at this point about brownfields. Now, it's time to talk about making real progress. The other guest on this edition of the podcast is David Petr (CzechInvest). He's excited by opportunity to bring such a powerful group of people together to discuss this critical components of the country's sustainability program. Those who listen to the end will get information about a potential discount to attend the exciting conference. ThePrime is a media partner of this year's conference.

Nick Cotton had lived in Kyiv for more than 20 years by the time Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February. This is the story of how the head of Cushman & Wakefield Ukraine found himself fleeing an advancing army -- what led up to it, how he made the painful decision to leave, and the exhausting trip itself.

This was a genuine conversation with Clare Sheils, MD of CBRE's Prague office. And we were in one of the few available meetings rooms in the company's office on Nam. Republiky, not in some sound-proof studio. This will always be my default for ThePrime Pod, as I'm very much in favor of meeting people where they work. But it means you can hear the occasional phone going off, or doors closing across the hallway.The important thing, however, was the quality of the conversation. Sheils spoke candidly and insightfully about her experience of guiding the company through the Covid-19 pandemic. And she didn't get tripped up by a trickier question at the end about the role of valuation in such unprecedented conditions. Her main point when it comes to the workplace is that companies and their leaders will have to get used to a changed environment. That there's no going back to the old ways entirely, and that new methods of communication will be vital in creating and maintaining company moral and corporate culture.ThePrime Pod is driven by ThePrime.cz website, which focuses on real estate, urban planning, sustainability and proptech in Central Europe.

Deep sustainable know-how is now a competitive advantage for developers, says Pavel Sovicka of Panattoni, on the debut episode of ThePrime Pod. Sovicka says his tenants have become masters of low-energy production. But they now demand the same level of sophistication from the buildings they occupy. It’s a fascinating look behind the headlines at Panattoni’s plans to implement solar energy solutions and materials recycling when working on brownfield sites.ThePrime Pod is driven by ThePrime.cz website, which focuses on real estate, urban planning, sustainability and proptech in Central Europe.

It's finally here!I've been promising to launch ThePrime Pod for a few months now, so I've finally taken the plunge and gotten things set up. Subscribe to make sure you're up to date with the only podcast to delve deep into the Czech & Slovak real estate sectors, the growing proptech industry and local urban planning. I'll be covering the wider CEE markets as well to provide context on what's going on here, but also with a view to domestic investors heading abroad in search of assets..